Sookie short stories

Thursday, June 10, 2010

What do you think about the changes Alan Ball has made to the TV version of your Sookie Stackhouse series (HBO’s “True Blood,”) especially expansion of characters like Tara and Jason, who have relatively smaller roles that don’t impact the story quite so much in the books?

*I think it’s great. He has to fill the screen, and it can’t always be with Anna. I tell my stories from the first person point of view, which doesn’t allow for the same latitude.

How did you develop your vampire mythology? So many vampire stories differ in their mythologies – how vampires are sired, the hierarchy in their culture, who originated their “race,” etc. What lead you to the mythology you created?

*I used what seemed logical to me in the context of the story I wanted to tell.

"I think that one great bonus is that we don't need a fluffer," Moyer, 40 (who plays Bill, vampire Sookie's lover on the HBO show, returning June 13), brags in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly about his fiancee.PHOTOS: Undercover lovers!

Paquin, 27, doesn't mind stripping down for her racy bedroom scenes.

"It doesn't really bother me," she says. "I'm really close with all of our cast, and we've all seen each other in various compromising and odd situations."
New castmate Joe Manganiello, who plays werewolf Alcide, says he got used to taking it all off as soon as he stepped on set.

"Having been a fan of the show, you know you're going to be naked at some point," he jokes. "I will say that I was welcomed into the brotherhood of the sock. When you're naked on the show, you have to wear a sock, and it's not on your foot."

Eight months is a long time to wait for a fix of Southern Gothic exsanguinations. Especially after a sputtering end to a deliciously campy, promiscuously metamorphical season. Even longer when the bloodletter in question is a 1,000-year-old Nordic ice king with a deadpan delivery as cadaverous as his heart. With the third season of True Blood starting Sunday, our minds have fixed on what we'd like to see more (Eric) and less (Bill) of from Alan Ball’s backwater bayou theater. By the looks of the previews — werewolves, death wishes, and revenge sex, oh yes! — things are headed in the right direction. But it's about time the show lives up to its William Eggleston–meets–Trent Reznor opening credits.

Iowa City, IA - JACE EVERETT will perform at the Englert Theatre Thursday, June 17th at 7 PM. The concert kicks off a three-part evening that also features a reception with author Charlaine Harris and the screening of the third season premier episode of HBO's hit series, TRUE BLOOD®.Concert tickets are only $15, and available at the Englert Box Office, Mon-Fri 1:00-6:00 PM, 221 E Washington Street, or online viawww.englert.org
Just "Google" Jace Everett's name and you'll find yourself knee-deep in the ooh's and ahh's of daily papers from Boston to Chicago and Seattle that can't discuss HBO's rocketing Golden Globe-honored drama TRUE BLOOD® without mentioning the brilliant opening title montage, devised around the swampy rockabilly come-on of Everett's "Bad Things."
RED REVELATIONS, the new album by the Nashville-based singer-songwriter, is a work of rare accomplishment and abandon, brimming with barely-contained emotions and urges. They are pervasive in the music, the voice and the songwriting. The primal, penetrating power of Everett's roots-music fusion, revving up from insinuation to howling gale-force rock in a second.
"We are really looking forward to having Jace on the Englert stage," says Englert Development Director Nancy Mayfield. "Here is an opportunity to see a star on the rise, to say 'I was there' when Jace Everett becomes a household name

New York – Season three of HBO’s gothic drama promises sex, danger, violence, scary werewolves, and even scarier new vampires. One of the most buzzed-about series since The Sopranos is premiering on June 13 to some hungry fans. Last summer, the show really began to boil, registering with both critics and audiences: At 4.3 million viewers an episode, it doubled its season 1 ratings. “It was a breakthrough season in terms of feeling like it became part of pop culture,” says Michael Lombardo, HBO’s head of programming. “It was the sort of show I started hearing people talk about on Mondays.”

The new season looks to be even more addictive with the introduction of several new characters, and multiple interconnecting story lines. “If last season’s general theme was religion, I would say this season’s theme is probably politics – vampire politics,” teases creator Alan Ball, who is trying to manage expectations that season 3 will be bigger and better than the previous two. “I feel like if we put that pressure on ourselves, then that’s just dangerous,” he says. “Ultimately, the goal is to tell the most entertaining, fun, sexy, scary, and romantic story.”

One thing is for sure – along the way, we can expect True Blood to once again provide an intoxicating blend of gory vampire saga, Southern gothic melodrama, and sex-charged romance. “It bridges a lot of genres,” says Sam Trammell (who plays shape-shifting Sam Merlotte). “There are some elements, metaphors of racial politics and gender politics – they’re there if you want to look for them, but it’s really popcorn, fun entertainment.”

And of course there is plenty of nudity. “Having been a fan of the show, you know you’re going to be naked at some point,” says newcomer Joe Manganiello, who plays a werewolf that accompanies Sookie on her quest to find Bill. “I will say that I was welcomed into the brotherhood of the sock. When you’re naked on the show, you have to wear a sock, and it’s not on your foot.”

Paquin says the graphic love scenes are the least of her concerns. “It doesn’t really bother me,” she admits. “I’m really close with all of our cast, and we’ve all seen each other in various compromising and odd situations.” The actress is, of course, particularly close with fiancé, Moyer, and Moyer says their real-life romance definitely adds to their love scenes. Jokes the actor, “I think that one great bonus is we don’t need a fluffer.” (Cover Story, Page 42)

True Blood returns on Sunday (hooray!), and we're speaking to Ryan Kwanten — the hunky Australian actor who plays the lovable yet dense Jason Stackhouse — tomorrow at 1 p.m. Curious about the new season? Dying to know more about Kwanten's glorious abs? Leave your questions for him in the comments. The interview will go up Friday morning.

I thought they said Nelsan was under the weather and that's why he wasn't at the Q&A now Ausiello says he was shooting a scene ? hmmmm....am I right is that what they said ?

Question: I am desperate for some True Blood! Can you help a girl out? —Kelley
Ausiello: While on the set last week for the Ultimate Fan Experience, I spied a very creepy scene being shot between Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) and his new beau, Jesus (played by Kevin Alejandro) that sheds new light on something Ellis told my colleague Tim Stack in this week’s Entertainment Weekly cover story. “There is absolutely more to him than meets the eye,” he teased. “There is something supernatural about Jesus, and how dark it is has yet to be seen.”Question: Any chance True Blood will bring Maryann back from the dead? —Will
Ausiello: No chance. But exec producer Alan Ball hints that, “We will be seeing some people that we thought were gone this year.” He also reveals that this season’s Big Bad will prove far more difficult to get rid of than Michele Forbes’ bat-s— crazy maenad. “We’ve had two seasons where the arch villain sort of met his or her demise,” he says. “I’m looking at a different way to dispatch our arch villain this year so that he might be able to come back in the future.” I can’t be sure but I think he’s talking about this guy.

True Blood fanatics insist that Alexander Skarsgård could floss his teeth with Robert Pattinson. As Eric Northman on HBO’s hit series, the actor spends most of his screen time brooding, biting and just barely concealing his dreamily undead bod. He’s come a long way since his small part in the 2001 flick Zoolander (“orange mocha Frappuccinos!”): He carried HBO’s critically acclaimed miniseries Generation Kill, scored a part in theforthcoming Lars von Trier film Melancholia and is set to tantalize True Blood fanatics everywhere when the show’s third season premieres on Sunday 13. We sat down with the smokin’ Swede to talk vampire fetishes and fraternal mix-ups.

Maybe something to plunk the kids(grands) in front of while you watch and re watch True Blood episodes this summer !

The Little Vampire is an adorable film. It might be for kids, but I’m an adult an I still love this movie. It’s brilliant, and it’s one of the few kid-friendly vampires. It even has vampire cows! Some of the movie is a little ridiculous, like the explanation of how the vampires can magically become human again. Most of it is pretty spectacular, albeit a little fantastical. But hey, we’re talking about mythical creatures here.
I didn’t know this when I first watched the movie, but it is based on a book called Der kleine Vampir. It was written by German author Angela Sommer-Bodenburg in 1979. There’s a whole children’s series of The Little Vampire and his adventures.